Ann Arbor, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of education approved a plan to lay off teachers and staff at a meeting Thursday night.
The meeting had teachers, staff, and families in attendance protesting the proposed teacher layoffs and while holding signs “WTF: Where’s the funding? Hint – it’s not in the teacher paychecks.”
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During the public comment section of the meeting, 143 people addressed the board with concerns according to Fox2Detroit.
“We are here to demand that you take staff cuts off the table. Those aren’t payroll calculations or enrollment numbers,” a parent said according to Fox2Detroit. “Those are our neighbors, already struggling to get by, who will lose their jobs. Those are yet more children who would lose the educators, mentors and advocates they deserve.”
Ann Arbor Public Schools Budget update supports cutting millions in costs quickly.
In a report presented to the Board of Education by the AAPS, it provided a recommendation to cut costs almost immediately.
“Reducing the $25M over one year yields the best financial results,” the recommendation said, adding it “Provides the district with long term financial stability based on our assumptions.”
By reducing costs over this timetable, the “district avoids uncertainty over multiple years” according to the report.
“After the $25M reduction (which is 8% of the operating budget) the district will have a budget of approximately $304M,” the recommendation said.
A copy of the report can be found here.
School Community Warned in March about impending budget cuts.
In March, Interim Superintendent Jazz Parks notified the Ann Arbor Public Schools about the need for the district to reduce its budget by $25 million.
Parks authorized a former Ann Arbor Public School (AAPS) Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations, Marios Demetriou, to perform a district wide financial analysis according to the letter which identified some budget challenges.
According to the letter, “These challenges result from three main historical factors:
– Staff has increased by 480 in the last 10 years
– Student enrollment has decreased by 1,123 over the last 4 years
– Recent agreements with our staff, including well-deserved and well-earned raises for teachers and staff, approved by our Board of Education resulted in increased staffing costs”
Despite authorizing several actions, some of which included freezing hiring and assessing all central office district and school budgets, Parks pledged to continue to work so this would not happen again.
“Board of Education President Feaster has asked for – and I have continued – a full review of how this occurred so that this does not happen again,” Parks said in the letter, “While previous budget decisions were made before I became interim superintendent, I am fully committed to addressing them and working with our staff, students, families and the Board of Education to create an action plan to move us forward.”
In a report from the AAPS, it indicated that the district reached its peak number of students in 2019-20 with 17,961 students, but has since been falling, and in 2023-24 year there are currently 16,838 students and 2,127 employees.
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